Adoptionismus

Adoptionismus is a historic Christological position that holds Jesus was born a human being and was later adopted by God as His Son, rather than being divine from eternity. In this view, Jesus’ divine status is conferred at a particular moment or event, such as his baptism or resurrection, rather than being inherent from the start.

Historically, adoptionism emerged in the early Christian centuries. Its most notable proponent was Paul of Samosata, the bishop of Antioch in the mid-3rd century, who taught that Jesus was a mere man who became divine through divine adoption. The doctrine provoked strong opposition from other church leaders who affirmed the eternal pre-existence of the Word and the true divinity of Jesus. Adoptionism was regarded as a heresy and was condemned in the developing church’s creedal and theological framework, which emphasized Jesus as the eternal Son, consubstantial with the Father.

Because it challenges pre-existence and Trinitarian unity, adoptionism faded as a dominant position in antiquity, though related discussions about the nature of Jesus’ sonship appeared in various forms within different Christian communities, including some early groups associated with Ebionite ideas.

In modern scholarship, adoptionism is primarily a historical term describing a set of views that orthodox Christian theologians have rejected. It is not a mainstream position in contemporary Christian theology, where the widely held view is that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, of the same substance as the Father. See also Ebionites and Patripassianism for related discussions of early Christological error.